Unioil

Thus said Unioil President Kenneth Pundanera as the company stood its ground amid accusations of deceit and unfair play surrounding its "big time" fuel price rollback last week.

"The message implanted on the public’s eye is that a small player which lowers its price will not find favor from the big ones and others and will be accused of various things," said Pundanera.

On July 13, Unioil enforced substantial price cuts amounting to P4.75 a liter for gasoline; P3.50 a liter for diesel and P1.50 a liter for kerosene.

The move drew praise from consumers but earned the ire of bigger firms, which implemented smaller rollbacks just days earlier. Unioil would know just how much its competitors loathed them in a meeting organized by the Department of Energy (DoE) last Friday.

According to the complaining oil firms, which included the major players, Unioil did not enforce its advertised big-time rollback on all of its retail stations.

DoE Secretary Angelo Reyes even called Unioil’s price reduction as "misleading" because the cut was made from its high suggested retail price (SRP) and not from the average market price.

Pundanera frowned on this, saying that the government likes to encourage oil companies to reduce prices but would throw the same companies to the "pit of hostility" once they abide.

The oil executive stressed that this would only result in the usual "modest" price adjustments, whether upward or downward, being the model for oil companies.

Pundanera further slammed the DoE for not tackling the "real issues" during the meeting, which include the price matching being done by bigger firms limited to areas near Unioil branches and the overpricing of fuel outside Metro Manila.